This invention relates to containers for holding coils of wire and permitting wire to be withdrawn continuously from several containers in succession and, more particularly, to such a wire coil container having a simple and convenient structure arranged to permit withdrawal of wire from successive containers in a more effective manner.
In certain cases, it is necessary to provide a container for holding a coil of wire in such a way that the wire can be withdrawn continuously through one side of the container from the inner surface of the coil while the container is held stationary. Moreover, to facilitate such continuous supply of wire from several coils in succession without interruption, it is necessary to connect the outer end of one coil of wire with the inner end of the next coil of wire and, accordingly, the outer end of each coil must pass from the inside to the outside of the container without interfering with the feeding of wire from the inner surface of the coil.
Heretofore, relatively complex container structures for feeding wire have been provided. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,948, a wire package is disclosed in which one side has a wire feed opening formed by a central circular ring with an outwardly open notch in the ring which is tapered in one direction and has an axially-directed projection. Another coil container has a tear-drop shaped wire feed opening in one side formed by a bar having both ends affixed in overlapping relation to a support bar at the outer periphery of the container and extending generally tangentially therefrom toward a central segment which is circular in shape and surrounds only about three quarters of the wire feed opening. Such complex structural arrangements are inconvenient to manufacture and may cause difficulty in feeding of the wire from the center of the coil.